Bilateral uranium deal with India faces hurdles

Finalising an agreement on safeguards to sell uranium to India could take years and then face possible legal challenges.

On her recent visit to India, Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
agreed Australia would begin negotiations on the safeguards that would need to be in place before commercial deals on uranium exports could be struck.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said negotiations could be expected to start in early 2013. “Negotiating a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement with India will take some time. Other such agreements between Australia and its bilateral partners have typically taken a year or more to complete," he said.

Greens senator Scott Ludlam said he was encouraged that DFAT officials had told a Senate estimates hearing that the agreement would look at the safety of India’s reactors.

“If that’s an honest assessment, that will be a deal breaker," he said. “India’s nuclear power plants have an appalling safety record."

India’s auditor-general recently released a damning report on the country’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, saying the majority of required inspections were delayed or never undertaken and there was no over-arching radiation safety policy.

Foreign Minister
Bob Carr
said on Friday that Australia would use its United Nations Security Council role to support non-proliferation efforts. But Senator Ludlam said that agreeing to talks on the sale of uranium to India, which has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, undermined Australia’s strong credentials in this field.

Legal experts have also warned any agreement could be challenged by signatories to the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, known as the Treaty of Rarotonga.